Since its establishment in 1908, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales has been recording archaeological and historic sites and monuments both spatially and cartographically. The role of the Commission both as a public archive of maps, and as a map producing body supplying map depictions of archaeological sites to the Ordnance Survey, is unique in Wales.
In this presentation the wealth of cartographic and spatial material available to researchers within the Royal Commission’s archive will be revealed. The ways in which staff at the Commission utilise these resources to record, interpret and present the past will also be explored. The opportunities that members of the public have to access and use these resources will also be discussed. Finally, there will be an exploration of the potential offered by new and emerging technologies such as Augmented and Virtual Reality to depict sites and landscapes of the past.
2. As well as more than 3 million pages of text, 2 million photographs and
70,000 drawings, the NMRW holds
• OS ‘Old Series’ 1” maps (1805-73)
• OS County Series 25” maps (Unique set of OS Surveyors working
maps, showing revisions between 1st and 2nd editions)
• OS 6” maps (pre- and post-British National Grid)
• Modern OS Landranger (1:50k) and Pathfinder (1:25k) series
• OS 1:10,000 series (annotated maps, an index to National
Archaeological Record cards)
• Early twentieth-century estate sales catalogues
• Historical maps – Ancient Britain, Roman Britain, Antonine Wall etc.
• Reprints of early maps including Ogilby’s ribbon road map (1675),
Blaeu’s County of Glamorgan (1645), Bowen’s maps of south Wales
(1729), Speed’s plan of Cardiff (1610) and others
• Admiralty charts Welsh coastal waters
MapsintheNationalMonumentsRecordofWales
CBHC | RCAHMW
29. These images where primarily used by the Ministry
for Town and Country Planning during the post war
years to aid with the reconstruction of British towns
and cities following the devastation caused by aerial
bombardment during the war.
All photographs where captured at a rough scale of
1:10,000 in stereo pairs.
RAFVerticalAerialImagery(1945-1954)
CBHC | RCAHMW
Aberystwyth, 9th May 1946
32. In conjunction with the systematic vertical
survey of the British Isles, the RAF also
undertook oblique aerial photographic surveys.
The most notable of these were the surveys of
the Welsh coast which was undertaken twice by
the RAF from 1945-52, and 1959-62.
RAFObliqueAerialImagery(1945-1962)
CBHC | RCAHMW
Shell Island c.1962
The oblique aerial photographs
within the NMRW include both
sideways and forward-facing
obliques, again mostly captured as
stereo pairs.
33. The Ordnance Survey took over civilian aerial
photography operations from the RAF in 1958.
The OS used aerial photography for the
creation and revision of their cartographic
products, a technique that continues to this
day.
The Commission holds all OS vertical imagery
from 1962 to 2009, all of which are in stereo
pairs.
OSVerticalAerialImagery(1962-2009)
CBHC | RCAHMW
Swansea c.1982
36. RCAHMWAerialReconnaissanceCollection(1986-Present)
CBHC | RCAHMW
Stack Rock Fort, Pembrokeshire
Aerial reconnaissance at the Royal Commission
began in 1986, initially to record the condition
of Scheduled Ancient Monuments.
Since then the flying programme has
developed into an on-going project which
monitors and records the condition of sites,
monuments and landscapes across Wales.
It is also an invaluable technique for the
discovery of previously unrecorded
archaeological sites.
38. The Aerofilms Collection was a UK wide
commercial archive of over one million aerial
photographs dating from 1919 to 2006. A
successful HLF bid supported by the RCAHMW,
RCAHMS and English Heritage culminated in
the ‘Britain from Above’ project which saw the
curation and digitisation of all glass negatives
dating from 1919 to 1953. All of these images
are available for free online.
The majority of the collection are oblique aerial
photography and offer great insight of the
developing landscapes of the 20th century.
AerofilmsCollection(1919–1953)
CBHC | RCAHMW
48. AntiquitiesonOrdnanceSurveyMaps
CBHC | RCAHMW
• 1979 review of Ordnance Survey functions recommends
responsibilities for recording and surveying of antiquities be
transferred to the Royal Commissions
• Since 1983 the Royal Commissions have been supplying basic
scale survey data to the OS for publication on its maps – a
function that continues (even though two of the three Royal
Commissions no longer exist!)
58. RemoteSensing
CBHC | RCAHMW
Example of 2m LiDAR data its coverage for Wales
Developments in technology have both increased the availability and reduced the costs of
remote sensing data.
• LiDAR
• Radar
• Imagery (multi-spectral, UAV & Satellite)
LiDAR, radar, aerial and satellite imagery is increasingly being used to identify and visualise
sites and landscapes
66. Thefutureisparticipatory
CBHC | RCAHMW
• Advances in technology mean that we can now both present
and collect spatial data in all sorts of ways
• The intelligent use of engaged audiences can allow us to
undertake data gathering or processing activities that would
have seemed unthinkable in the recent past
• These new cooperative relationships between institutions
and their users are beneficial for both parties; crowdsourcing
contributors can feel more engaged, valued and gain an
enhanced understanding of an institution and its projects,
while the institution can generate vast amounts of useful
information, at the same time developing a cohort of
enthusiastic supporters